The Storm
by Vegeta Goddess
Summary: Bulma catches Yamcha cheating and is faced with a difficult choice - give up on a relationship that has meant so much to her? Or move on with the wickedly handsome saiyan prince who continues to darken her door?  V/B get together!
1. Chapter 1

_A/N - This is a fic which I had running around in my head for a while. Originally I was going to write it as a long one shot but as the idea bloomed it became a fic that would probably tell itself in several smaller chapters. This is the kind of thing which I don't really write about - a cannon V/B get together fic. Originally inspired by one of my beta readers, I've tinkered with this for about a year until the idea was...well...developed out fully. You can thank the Black and Blue LJ V/B community for actually inspiring me to do some writing!_

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**The Storm**

Her breath sobbing her throat, Bulma slammed her car door and half-ran half-stumbled ran across the front garden before she collapsed in the shade of the gravity machine. She stared down at her slender fingers and twisted her hands together, feeling the muscles tighten until her nails cut into her palms and a thin line of blood trickled down her wrist. She stared at the thin red line and slowly opened her hands again, staring at the bloody half-moon shapes that her nails had made in her palm. She choked back a hysterical laugh and buried her face in her hands, determinedly holding back the tears that were threatening to fall.

So…Yamcha was having an affair. She'd known this day was coming. She'd known she was going to look in the window of his apartment one day and see his body intertwined with that of some blonde _strumpet_. Kami! Kami, how she hated that fool and his inability to stay faithful to her. She did everything she could to please him and yet he never failed to let her down.

Oh, she'd seen the way the young women at the gym looked at her boyfriend and she'd caught the way that Yamcha watched them in return. She'd known it was only a matter of time – after all, Yamcha was still a good looking man who was widely known from his stint playing baseball in the World Series.

It was her own fault that she was in this predicament! She'd known Yamcha's track record when it came to women and she'd known in her heart that she would never be able to satisfy him. He was addicted to fame and addicted to women.

Bulma lifted her head and bit her lip angrily as her eyes blurred with tears. She would not cry over him! He wasn't worth her tears let alone her pain! Bulma slowly stood up, forcing herself to move and no give in to the crushing feeling of defeat that she felt. She ran a hand through her rumpled blue locks as she unsteadily made her way into the house and threw herself onto a chair in the kitchen.

"Damn you, Yamcha!" She muttered into the empty air. "I'm not going to let you get away with this!"

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"Hello Vegeta."

Bulma mumbled at him and glanced up at the perpetually cranky saiyan as he walked into the kitchen and sniffed the air. He returned her gaze with suspicious eyes and quickly looked away again; her hollow tone instantly putting him on edge. The woman aroused feelings in him fluctuated between wanting to ring her neck for the idiot things she would say, to deeply disturbing sexual thoughts which usually crept out to bug him while he tried to sleep.

...Not that he'd tell her that of course. If was one thing to admit to himself that she was attractive and another thing entirely to tell her.

"Woman." He nodded in her general direction and then froze and glanced back at her as a small tremor of shock ran through him. Bulma looked...ghostly. Her makeup was smeared over her cheeks as though she'd been crying and she seemed to have smears of...blood? Blood on her cheeks? He paused, unsure of exactly how big of a deal he should be making, while his heart thumped in his chest and adrenaline began to charge through his system. If someone had hurt her they would pay...

"Have you...hurt yourself?" He asked gruffly, pointing at the blood on her cheeks and feeling painfully aware of the silence that had descended. Bulma started to raise a hand to her cheek but stopped when she caught sight of the nail marks in her palm that were still oozing blood.

"No, I..." She started to tear up again but determinedly fought against them. "...I just cut myself, that's all." She clenched her fists again closed her eyes to hide her tears, but unbidden the image of Yamcha and the other woman tore through her mind and without thinking about it she let out a scream of frustration and slammed her fist down on the tabletop, smearing it with blood. "I hate him, Vegeta! I hate him!"

"What? Who?" Vegeta crossed the room in an instant and caught her hand, looking at the small nail marks which the woman had clearly inflicted on herself. Unsure of how to handle Bulma's rage or her self inflicted wounds he stood awkwardly by her side while she dissolved into tears in front of him.

"Yamcha...he's with another...woman!" Bulma hiccuped loudly as she stifled the tears before they could take hold properly. "I hate him! How could he do this after all we've been through?" She twisted her hand in Vegeta's grip and grasped his wrist, looking up at him with bitterness.

Vegeta felt his body tense as he registered the source of her pain and realised that he'd been given a scare for nothing. The idiot boyfriend had cheated, that was all. He'd reflected on more than one occasion that the moron Yamcha seemed on odd choice for a woman such as Bulma, and now she was paying the price.

Gritting his teeth, he shook her hand from his wrist and stomped to the sink to run some paper towel under the water. He could still hear the woman sniffling behind him at the table and the sound was driving him mad.

He'd never felt much for women before – when he'd been on board Frieza's ship he'd never had trouble procuring women to fulfill his needs, but he had treated women and sex as just another appetite to be satisfied. He'd never actually had a woman raise much emotion in him at all...but Bulma did.

She always had.

Angrily Vegeta clenched his teeth. He was not going to become just another idiot male like the men on this planet. He was not going to pat Bulma on the back and comfort her while she cried over a man who was even more foolish than that idiot Kakarot.

He was strong! He was a saiyan warrior and he was not going to be ruled by his emotions! As far as he was concerned, if you lay down with dogs, you were bound to get fleas and Bulma was getting what she deserved for dating that baka!

"Get yourself under control." Vegeta hissed at her as he walked back and threw the wet paper towel down on the table next to her, his body language radiating aggression. "And clean yourself up! You look atrocious." He added and then stomped out of the room, forcing himself not to look back as he heard Bulma begin to sob once more.

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_A/N - Rather short, but it needed to be :) I feel kinda sorry for poor Bulma here but I do know where Vegeta is coming from._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ!**

A/N – Thank you to everyone else who left me reviews (even that negative Nancy who made completely wrong predictions for how this fic will go!) – it's good to be back and be writing again! **The Storm** is probably only going to have relatively small chapters. I'm writing it bit by bit as I get inspired…so while I will try and write this consistently, it will be fairly short and sweet.

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Rage bubble up in the pit of Bulma's stomach as she watched Vegeta walk away, his entire presence bristling with anger. What did _he_ have to be angry about? She was the one hurting, she was the one who had been cheated on and she was the one who had been used! How dare he come into her house and treat her like absolute dirt – as though the entire situation was her fault! How _could_ he? How _dare_ he!

"Bastard!"

Before she could think what she was doing Bulma stood up and hurled the wet paper towel at Vegeta's back as he disappeared out the doorway, secretly enjoying the wet 'thwack' sound it made when it hit him square between the shoulders and then plopped to the ground. She gritted her teeth and refused to back down as he spun around looking outraged and took a step in her direction with his hands clenched tightly into fists.

"I could kill you for that…" He spluttered angrily, his eyes running between the offending paper towel and the clearly emotional woman who stood at the table almost vibrating with anger.

"Then go ahead and kill me!" Bulma cried rawly from between her clenched teeth. Anger still coursed through her body and she strode forward until she was well and truly in Vegeta's personal space; holding her face only a few inches from his. "Go on and do it! If you're such a tough guy then just _do it_!"

Bulma managed to keep her voice steady as she stood closer to Vegeta then she had ever been before, her anger making her completely unafraid of the man who had originally arrived on Earth to massacre her friends. In the back of mind, even through the rage, Bulma noted how hot the air around him felt and how, just like Goku, he had a strange smell that she likened to that of rain She looked deep into his obsidian eyes and felt shock course through her as she noted the smirk starting to curve his lips. He found her funny? _Was he laughing at her?_

"Don't you dare laugh at me!" Bulma hissed and raised a hand to slap the nasty little smirk off his smug face, gasping when Vegeta instantly caught her hand in his and held it mid air. She tugged at her hand but he held onto it easily, his grip firm but not painful. He was watching her as though fascinated by her fiery display – the smirk growing until he was almost smiling at her with amusement. Bulma felt a shiver of fear slide down her spine as he watched her intently, but she refused to show any sign of it. She'd be damned if she'd let Vegeta know how unnerved she was.

"You look much better when you're angry." The saiyan murmured to her with that small smirk still dancing on his lips, "Much better then when you were crying pathetically on the table." He held her eyes for a moment longer and then released her hand and took a step back, his eyes darting momentarily to her lips before he they again clashed with her glimmering baby blues. "I'd stay angry if I were you…that idiot isn't worth your tears."

Vegeta glanced down at the paper towel and the smirk widened before he stepped over it and strode out of the room, the sound of his chuckling drifting back to Bulma who could only clench her fists and growl in frustration and embarrassment. Losing control of herself was one thing; after all she had always had a fiery temper. But losing control of herself and actually goading Vegeta to attack her was quite another! Not that she'd believed he'd hurt her for a second; Vegeta needed her and her family and, more so, he needed a place to stay while he trained for the coming battle with the Androids.

Dimly Bulma registered that the rage she had directed at Vegeta had really been meant for Yamcha. _Really_, she thought to herself, _Vegeta had taken her shrewish behaviour quite well_. _Goodness knows that he would have done to her once upon a time…back in the days when he'd slaughtered most of her friends and had come close to killing Goku._ Those days were long gone though, it seemed as though an age had passed since she'd first seen Vegeta – watching through Baba's crystal ball. It wasn't that Vegeta was a completely changed man, but he did seem to have mellowed out slightly since Frieza had been killed. The guy had issues, everyone knew that, but maybe knowing that Frieza was dead had laid some of his demons to rest.

Bulma sighed and collapsed onto a seat on the table. She was an idiot! She really, really was! She rested her head on her hands and took a deep calming breath; really she needed to act now while she still felt strong enough. She needed to call Yamcha and let him know it was over between them…if the girl was still at his house and he didn't pick up then she would just leave him a message and let him know she needed to speak to him. Maybe it was cowardly not to confront him face to face, but she didn't want to deal with Yamcha's excuses or watch him try to make amends.

Yamcha was a good guy underneath it all, but if he was seeing other people then he couldn't be happy with her and ending it was for the best. Letting him go would hurt; after all, he'd been a big part of her life for so many years, but she couldn't go on pretending that their relationship was great when it wasn't.

Besides, deep down she knew Vegeta was right and that Yamcha wasn't worth her tears.

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Bulma hung the phone up and let out a long frustrated sigh. That had been the hardest phone call that she'd ever had to make. Yamcha had been frustrating to deal with on the phone and in retrospect she should have seen him face to face to get everything out of the way. Now she had not only had to go through a ridiculous phone conversation that had gone nowhere but Yamcha was on his way over to "talk things out" with her.

They hadn't had a problem on the phone because he'd lied or tried to excuse himself, it had been because he couldn't believe that Bulma wouldn't forgive him. He admitted having an affair with one of the trainers from his gym but swore it meant nothing to him. He'd pleaded, begged, whined and finally had tried to turn on the charm…but Bulma hadn't relented, so after a two hour long phone call that had gone nowhere he was on his way over.

"Great." Bulma mumbled to herself and wandered out of her bedroom and into her private bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror and winced. She really did look terrible – Vegeta had been right about that. She had dried blood from the cuts on her hands streaked on her face, her skin looked blotchy and her eyes were red from crying. Not wanting to look like a complete and utter mess, Bulma washed her face with cold water and then put some eye drops in so at least she wouldn't look like she'd been bawling over him. The last thing she wanted to do was start crying again or even to let him know she'd been crying, although Yamcha would probably be able to tell instantly that she had been upset. Never mind. Every time she even started to feel the least bit like crying about the end of their relationship she'd just take Vegeta's advice and get mad.

Making a face at herself in the mirror Bulma walked back into the bedroom and changed into a nice neutral outfit – jeans and a long sleeved blue shirt. There. Now she felt all armored up for the coming talk with Yamcha. The woman who'd been hurting herself and crying like a child was long gone and in her place was the righteously angry Bulma Briefs! All she had to do was go downstairs and wait for him to show up, maybe watch some television while she waited or make some coffee for them to have while they "talked".

"This was going to be tough…" Bulma muttered to herself as she walked out of her room and closed the door behind her.

"What will be tough?"

Bulma squeaked with fright and turned around to see Vegeta loitering in the hallway at the top of the stairs, a clean towel in one hand and a fresh change of clothes in the other. He was shirtless and covered with a fine layer of sweat – clearly the saiyan prince was on his way in after doing some training.

"God you scared me! Cant you make a little more noise and maybe give me a little warning the next time you sneak up on me?" Bulma frowned at him darkly and made her way up the hall towards him. She was used to having Vegeta roam around her house in his training gear and she wrinkled her nose at his sweaty smell as she passed him at the top of the stairs, ignoring the prickling feeling that raced down her spine when she drew close to him. "Anyway, not that it's any of your business but Yamcha is coming over so we can _talk_."

The sarcasm in her voice raised Vegeta's eyebrows and his gaze followed her as she slipped past him on the stairs. "Why does that idiot want to talk?"

"Because he's a moron that doesn't understand that when I say it's over, I _mean_ it's over – seeing me in the flesh or talking on the phone makes no difference to me." Bulma paused and glanced back up the stairs at the saiyan, her head tilted to the side quizzically. "Thanks for helping to knock some sense into me earlier; you were more help then you knew, Vegeta."

Vegeta merely made a disagreeable sound and turned to make his way to the bathroom, his figure quickly disappearing around the corner. His voice drifted back down to Bulma though and she grinned at his words, "You're thanking me for threatening to kill you? You're more an idiot then I thought."

It was strange, Bulma reflected as she made her way down the remaining stairs, but Vegeta sounded almost pleased.

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**A/N – Short and sweet but I liked writing this **** It was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own DBZ!**

_**A/N – Thank you to everyone who is reviewing **__** I do love reading reviews and feedback! This chapter is a mix of a drabble I wrote for an LJ challenge, so I hope everything had knitted together nicely!**_

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Today was going to be a good day, Vegeta was sure of it. He'd never been the kind of man to lay bets on things - after all, in his line of work you learned to never make assumptions and always to prepare for the worse - but he was certain that after Bulma's little 'talk' with her idiot boyfriend, they would be separated for good...which meant that maybe, just maybe, he might get an opportunity to bed the woman and get her out of his system.

It was reasonably distracting to live in close quarters to such a beautiful woman, but to be so close to her when he'd been without female company for so long was infuriating and frustrating all at the same time. So much so that if he hadn't been so busy training to surpass Kakarot and to defeat the androids, he would have sought out a professional woman to take care of his needs and hopefully get thoughts of the blue haired creature out of his head.

He tossed his damp towel carelessly down on the ground and pulled on a fresh pair of training shorts, rolling his shoulders to ease some of the tension out of them. The hot shower he'd taken had helped, but his muscles were still aching from his punishing mid-morning workout. His early morning training session had been ruined by the woman's breakdown earlier and then ruined further by his own traitorous thoughts, but he'd more then made up for it afterwards. Damn the woman for being so distracting! His training needed to come first, not some weak little woman who couldn't even choose a suitable mate for herself!

Snorting with disdain for the human Yamcha, Vegeta pulled on a black shirt and wandered down towards the kitchen. His keen nose had picked up the smell of freshly brewed coffee and his stomach began growling accordingly.

Vegeta paused outside of the kitchen door as Bulma's voice reached him – the tone shrill and angry. Were the woman and the idiot having their little chat already? He inched closer, aware that he was eavesdropping but not caring, and peeked carefully around the corner. The weakling Yamcha was standing defensively behind the kitchen table while Bulma glared angrily at him. Her wrathful gaze, hard and unyielding, keeping the human warrior pinned to his spot like an earthling bug. Vegeta resisted the urge to chuckle as he watched Bulma bristle like an angry cat at whatever Yamcha had just said to her.

"You're going to try to blame me for what happened?" She crossed her arms across her chest and glared daggers at the wild haired bandit. "I can't believe you! I only allowed you to come around here because you kept insisting that I needed to hear your side of the story before I cut you out of my life for good, and what do I get instead?" She paused dramatically and narrowed her eyes further still, her voice dripping with scorn. "I get some stupid excuse about how I'm the person to blame because _apparently_ I pay too much attention to Vegeta!"

"Bulma, I'm not trying to excuse what I did...I know it was wrong and I'm sorry...but you have to admit that I have a good reason for thinking that something was already going on between you two." Yamcha stammered out his words hesitantly, clearly not liking the direction that their 'talk' had taken but unwilling to back down until he'd had his story heard. He took a deep breath and continued, "I'm not going to make excuses for myself, I'm just trying to explain why I felt…felt the need to…to…"

Bulma's blue eyes had narrowed further as he talked, and Yamcha's voice faltered as she interrupted his speech to finish it for him, her voice flat and tired sounding. "…Why you felt entitled to go out and screw another woman?"

"That's not what I meant! I didn't feel entitled! I just felt…lonely." Yamcha sighed and ran a hand through his hair, a gesture which reminded Vegeta of Kakarot, as though Yamcha had spent a large amount of time emulating the stronger saiyan. "Bulma, I love you…but…"

"Yeah, 'but'." Bulma sighed and wrapped her arms around herself, glancing away from Yamcha briefly. "I know there are a lot of 'buts' between us, but I don't think that it's fair for you to go around accusing me of ignoring you! I've done nothing but support you, and yes Vegeta too, while you've all been training! You think you've been lonely? Well, I'm the one who was stuck at home by myself while you went out training…and now I don't even know if I can believe that you really were out training all those times…

"Bulma…"

"No! Don't interrupt! I've been so lonely here without anyone to talk to, but I was willing to put up with it because I thought I loved you…"

"You _thought_ you loved me?"

The hurt in Yamcha's voice made Vegeta smile nastily and duck back around the corner while he stifled a laugh. Their conversation was undoubtedly something which he shouldn't be listening to, but as he seemed to be one of the issues between them, he couldn't make himself walk away. He was _very_ interested to know what it was that Yamcha had thought Bulma had been doing behind his back. In the kitchen, their voices were growing louder again and Vegeta tuned back into the conversation.

"…Well think about it from my point of view, Bulma! Every time I came around here to visit it was Vegeta this and Vegeta that! _Vegeta can I get you some sauce for your ribs? Vegeta can I retune the gravity machine for you? Vegeta would you like a cold drink?_" Yamcha's voice took on a girly quality as he mimicked Bulma. "I mean, you spent most of your time running around after him and waiting on him hand and foot! You're acting like some stupid girl with a crush!"

"What?" Bulma screeched, taking a menacing step towards Yamcha. "You take that back!" She growled angrily, her mouth was twisting into a fierce scowl as she stalked around the kitchen table a few paces, forcing Yamcha to back away to avoid her.

"I'm not taking it back! It's true!" Yamcha looked almost as angry as Bulma as he backed away and then abruptly stood his ground, holding up a hand to forestall whatever she had been about to say. "You know it is – otherwise you wouldn't be so angry!"

"I'm angry because you're wrong, you moron! Do you know how stupid you sound? It's bad enough that I never get to see you anymore because of your training but when you do show up all you do is fling accusations at me and try and make excuses for your cheating!" Bulma had stopped her angry advance and was now standing in the middle of the kitchen looking genuinely upset. "I mean, we're talking and _Vegeta_! For one thing, he pretty much hates me! And do you really think, in a million years, that_ I'd_ ever have an affair with _him_? Kami, give me a little a credit! I do have some self respect! I'm not going to go around throwing myself at every muscle bound man who happens to cross my path!"

Vegeta eyes widened in surprise and his mouth dropped open in shock. It was only with a great force of will that he made himself move away from the door and their argument – his pride smarting a little at Bulma's horrified and indignant tone. What did she even mean about having too much self respect? Too much self respect to cheat on Yamcha or too much self respect to lower herself to sleeping with him?

Glowering, Vegeta crept back down the hallway and away from their argument which was growing progressively louder. Despite Bulma's protests, Vegeta could see why the human might have been a little jealous of the way Bulma treated him. The woman did pay him a lot of attention…it was one of the reasons why Vegeta had initially been surprised to discover that Yamcha was her mate; she simply didn't act like it most of the time.

It wasn't just that she was constantly bringing him food or helping to fix his gravity machine, Bulma had done other things which had encouraged Vegeta to entertain thoughts about her. Such as when the gravity machine had exploded and he had been knocked unconscious for a day or so; the woman had stayed by his bed the entire time. When he'd first realised that she was there out of concern for him he'd been taken aback…no one had ever shown any level of concern for him before and he hadn't known what to think about it, so he'd simply got out of there and hadn't spoken about it again.

Looking back, that was undoubtedly when his attraction to the woman had really started in earnest. In some strange way he'd started thinking about her as his, and the feeling hadn't quite gone away no matter how hard he trained or what he meditated on; the woman was always in the back of his mind. Perhaps if he had been able to bed her at the start he could have worked the attraction out of his system, but the strange soft spot he had for the woman was ever present now.

"Get out! It's over between us Yamcha…so just _go_!" Bulma's voice, sharp enough to cut glass, sliced through the air and Vegeta smirked to himself as he heard Yamcha muttering to himself angrily before slamming the door on the way out.

Yes, today was going to be a good day…

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**A/N – I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! **** Please do review and let me know if you're enjoying this ^_^**


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